Lead: The third wife of Henry VIII delivered him the great desire of his life - a son.

Tag: "A Moment in Time" with Dan Roberts.

Content: Though fascinated at first with the vivacious and exciting Anne Bolyn, Henry began to tire of her soon after their marriage. With her inability to produce a male heir to continue the king's line her position was even more perilous. Late in 1535 the royal eye in its continual wandering lighted on a member of the queen's entourage, Jane Seymor. At twenty-six, she was the eldest female among ten children of Sir John Seymor, a wealthy land owner whose home, Wolf Hall, was in Wiltshire in southwestern England. They were a court family and Jane had been around for some years before she attracted the king's attention.

Anne Bolyn's fate was sealed with the miscarriage of her last son and in May 1536 she was arrested and tried for adultery and incest, charges that were most certainly false, and on May 19th she was executed. Henry lost no time. Within twenty-four hours he was betrothed to Jane Seymor and they were married ten days later.

The new queen was very different from her predecessor and perhaps that was her greatest appeal to the forty-one year old monarch. She was certainly not overly attractive. A contemporary described her as, "of middle statue and no great beauty." The king was drawn to her virtue and good sense. And she was a virgin. Jane was also sweet natured, not given to the sharp words and temper tantrums of Anne Bolyn. This was most evident in her treatment of Mary Tudor, at that point the legally illegitimate daughter of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mary had been banished from court and soon after Jane's marriage to the king she began to gently encourage Henry to rehabilitate his eldest daughter. He did so and for that Mary was most grateful.

Her most significant contribution was a son for the king. The future Edward VI was born naturally, not as rumored later by cesarean section, on October 12 but the celebration over the birth was muted. The queen was dying. She contracted a fever and infection and was dead in less than two weeks.

Henry VIII looked back on Jane Seymor as the wife with whom he had been most happy. When he died in 1547 he was buried in her tomb.

"A Moment in Time" is produced at the University of Richmond. This is Dan Roberts. Resources

Dowling, Maria. "A Woman's Place? Learning in the Wives of Henry VIII," History Today. (Great Britain), 1991 41 (June): 38-42.

Fraiser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Knopf Publishing Company, 1992.

Mattingly, Garrett. Catherine of Aragon. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1941.

Scarisbrick, J.J. Henry VIII. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

Copyright 1994 by Daniel M. Roberts, Jr.